Book Description

In 1958, when the Kingston Trio released their popular ballad "Tom Dooley," every time I heard the sad refrain on the radio about Tom going to be hanged for the murder of his sweetheart I'd cry. In my heart, I believed Tom was innocent. The authorities would be hanging an innocent man. Thirty years later, I saw an article in the Charlotte Observer that told about Tom Dooley, including the fact that he'd been hanged in Statesville, N.C. an hour from my home! Edith Ferguson Carter, whose family was intertwined with the story from its very beginning, was opening a Tom Dooley Museum just a mile from where the tragedy occurred. I contacted Edith and listened to her story about a young Confederate soldier and POW who returned from the Civil War to find his first love Ann had married another man, but still wanted Tom. Since he could no longer marry Ann, Tom began courting Laura, the girl who was later murdered. Area residents believe a jealous Ann was the actual murderer. On my search to find the truth, I interviewed people whose ancestors told stories about their involvement in events surrounding Laura's May 25, 1866 murder. I interviewed Edith's father, whose brother was Tom's jailor; Edith's husband's grandfather, who was the coroner; the great grandson of "Grayson" who helped the posse catch Tom and then stopped them from lynching him in Tennessee; Frank Proffitt, Jr. whose great grandmother heard Tom singing the song in his cell in Statesville and passed it down through her family and many more. Next, I searched the N.C. state archives which had summaries of Tom's two trials; interviewed experts on the "place and the times;" searched contemporary newspapers and the Wilkes, Caldwell and Iredell Heritage books to find out about the jurors, sheriffs and judges. Studying the life of his attorney, Zebulon Vance, the ex-Confederate governor of N.C., I believe I found the real reason this famous man represented Tom. The result of my research is found inside The Tom Dooley Files.